Fixing the results of a problem is not the same as stopping it from recurring and you rarely can undo all the problems, especially if you do it persistently. For example, exercising doesn’t make up for an addiction to doof. Even if you burn off the calories, it doesn’t fix the health problems or make back the wasted money. More importantly, since you keep consuming doof, you’ll likely miss exercising sometimes.

Relevant to polluting and depleting: plant all the trees you want. If our culture values affordable houses and food, when they want to chop your trees back down, they’ll find a way to.

I distinguish mopping up the mess from not causing it because I’m getting flooded with requests for people promoting stuff for Earth Day, and not all for-profit things where they might just be promoted to meet demand for “green.”

Even among those who promote environmental things, none are doing anything related to stopping humanity from causing the problems they want to solve. I don’t think any of them see that their work won’t make a difference, will likely distract from what could, and often will exacerbate the problems they want to solve.

Even if their projects work as intended, the people causing the problems aren’t in their hearts trying to cause those problems. They are doing something they think helps so they’ll keep doing them, often more, so they’ll find ways around the solutions.

For example, if someone plants trees to make up for lost trees, well, no one is chopping down trees for no reason than to chop them down. They’re chopping them so people have affordable housing, furniture, and can build and raise families, or to create farmland to feed people affordably.

Plant all the trees you want. If our culture values affordable houses and food, when they want to chop your trees back down, they’ll find a way to.

Sample projects the don’t help

Do you see the pattern in all these projects?

I’m not saying they’re bad projects. I won’t stop people from doing them, but anyone who thinks they’ll stop or even slow pollution or depletion is misguided. We can do all these projects and many more like them and never reduce the problem. Environmentalists rarely work on solving the problems: pollution and depletion, and the culture that promotes and rewards activities that do so.

The last one listed below, in particular, accelerates the problem. Its results will be disastrous.

Do you see that none of these projects stop the problems, even remotely? I quote their descriptions from emails I received today:

• A machine learning-based platform to support sustainable agriculture and help mitigate climate change. The system she created regenerates soil and improves crop yields, providing small-scale farmers with a strategy for climate-friendly agriculture, especially in developing countries facing food insecurity.
• An international campaign to help communities in Cuba restore their country’s stunning coral reefs.
• Three youth-led initiatives to make sustainability accessible, actionable, and community-driven. His initiatives have guided more than 100,000 people in taking steps to reduce emissions, volunteer together, and better understand the climate solutions within reach.
• To combat biodiversity loss and climate change through the protection of monarch butterflies.
• To explore native seaweed’s potential to reduce nitrogen pollution along Rhode Island’s coast.
• A school uniform recycling program to reduce textile waste in his California community while alleviating financial strain on families.
• To protect endangered diamondback terrapins in her community on the South Shore of Long Island through awareness signs in her town’s bayfront parks.
• A nonprofit committed to reducing plastic use and educating others about the importance of conservation.
• A low-cost, effective, and scalable system to remove microplastics from rivers, lakes and coastlines.  His chemically triggered, titanium dioxide-coated foam system captures and quickly degrades microplastics through the use of UV light.
• Timbercraft Tiny Homes finishes building a new tiny house every eight days. Now it’s building an entire neighborhood. The houses—most under 400 square feet —roll out of the factory fully equipped with refrigerators and dishwashers and air conditioning, cabinets and fireplaces and porches. At a time when the median price of all U.S. homes has climbed above $400,000, these tiny homes generally go for between $100,000 and $200,000.

The last project is a commercial venture. It creates disposable homes, whose parts will fill landfills and scatter to the winds within a human lifetime. Plenty of buildings around the world endure centuries, often more efficient for their climates based on experience, not the latest technology.

• ← Why do we fund our enemies by air conditioning the outdoors?